The Third Life of Grange Copeland

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The Third Life of Grange Copeland
ThirdLifeOfGrangeCopeland.JPG
First edition
Author Alice Walker
Cover artistHal Siegal
Publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Publication date
1970
Pages247 pp.
ISBN 978-0-15-189905-0
OCLC 188256

The Third Life of Grange Copeland is the debut novel of American author Alice Walker. Published in 1970, it is set in rural Georgia. It tells the story of Grange, his wife, their son Brownfield, and granddaughter Ruth. [1]

Debut novel first published by an author

A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future. First-time novelists without a previous published reputation, such as publication in nonfiction, magazines, or literary journals, typically struggle to find a publisher.

Alice Walker American author and activist

Alice Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist. She wrote the novel The Color Purple (1982), for which she won the National Book Award for hardcover fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She also wrote the novels Meridian (1976) and The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), among other works. An avowed feminist, Walker coined the term "womanist" to mean "A black feminist or feminist of color" in 1983.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1970.

Contents

Characters

Plot summary

As a poor sharecropper, Grange is virtually a slave; in cotton-era Baker County, Georgia, the more he works, the more money he ends up owing to the man who owns the fields he works and the house he lives in. Eventually life becomes too much for him and he runs away from his debts to start a new life up North, leaving his family.

Baker County, Georgia county in Georgia, United States

Baker County is a county in Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 3,451. The county seat and only city is Newton. The county was created December 12, 1825 from the eastern portion of Early County by an act of the Georgia General Assembly and is named for Colonel John Baker, a hero of the American Revolutionary War.

After declining a loan from a white landowner which he knows he can't pay back, Brownfield begins to head North on foot to follow in his father's footsteps. Brownfield is led to a woman named Josie who owns and operates a lounge/brothel called the Dew Drop Inn (in some printings, the Dewey Inn). Brownfield winds up sharing a bed with Josie, her daughter Lorene, and Josie's deceased sister's daughter Mem. Brownfield takes a liking to Mem and eventually marries her under the disapproving Josie's nose.

Brownfield beats and eventually kills Meme (sometimes printed as "Mem") and is jailed for an arbitrary seven years. Grange finds the North unfulfilling and returns to Baker County, which is the only place he knows of as home.

Analysis

Walker says,"it was an incredibly difficult novel to write, for I had to look at, and name, and speak up about violence among black people in the black community at the same time that black people (and some whites)--including me and my family were enduring massive psychological and physical violence from white supremacists in the southern states, particularly Mississippi."

She further states that the incident in the novel involving the murder of a woman and mother by her husband and the father of her children is based on a real case in her hometown of Eatonton, Georgia.

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References

  1. Bates, Gerri (2005). Alice Walker: A Critical Companion. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 53–62. ISBN   978-0-313-32024-8.

Further reading